Back in safe zone, for now

In spite of $12 million in budget cuts, Weber State University has decided to maintain its French and Japanese foreign language programs for at least a year. These two programs graduate the fewest majors and minors in the College of Arts and Humanities and administrators were considering cuts to help meet the budget shortfall.
“At least the next academic year, fall of 2010 and spring of 2011, we’ll have funding for the programs,” said Madonne Miner, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities. “The provost was able to come up with funds for at least that year.”
Provost Mike Vaughan said that money in the school budget was found for the programs, but did not say from where.
The French and Japanese programs will remain for now, but may not be out of the woods yet.
“We’ll probably revisit the issue in the fall of 2010,” Miner said. “We’re currently talking to Dr. (Thomas) Mathews (chair of the foreign language department) about evaluating how the programs are able to increase their numbers. Student enrollment has become the issue in maintaining a diverse foreign language department. The question will be ‘Can we make the offering of multiple languages cost-effective? Do we have enough student enrollment to offer an array of languages?’”
Currently WSU offers three degrees in the foreign language department: Spanish, German and French. Japanese is only offered as a minor. Currently, 92 students are enrolled in French, while the Japanese program has 85 students. Most of the students enrolled in these programs are first-year language students. The French program consists of two professors, while the Japanese program contains one professor.
“I think the best service to students is to let students know they are still here,” Mathews said. “People who are considering majors and minors in French and Japanese should still consider them.”
While the programs were being reviewed, the news hasn’t seemed to change enrollment.
“We haven’t had anyone come in and change their minor or undeclare their major,” Mathews said.
Although the programs will not be cut, the French and Japanese programs still have work to do. They must build the numbers of their respective programs.
“I think the faculty members have been advertising,” Miner said. “They’ll have to think creatively on how to get the word out about the importance of studying language.”
Advertising for the programs comes in different forms. Teachers put up posters for their own classes, and the foreign language department creates brochures to inform students about the different programs.
“We’ve done some brochures for study abroad programs and we have brochures for the foreign language department,” Mathews said. “We’re investigating the kinds of courses students would like to take in the upper division, and we’re working on a French brochure.”
The brochures are meant to draw students from various sources.
“We’ve taken them to high schools, and we’ve taken them when we’ve done concurrent enrollment,” Mathews said.
Students within the foreign language department are willing to help recruit, so long as there are programs to recruit for.
“If the program is still available, I will continue to recruit, but not if there’s a threat,” said Jason Gardiner, a communication major working on a Japanese minor. “The only way I heard about it was my brother minored in it (Japanese). I’ve never seen a promotion about it, even since I’ve been taking classes.”
Although he hasn’t seen posters and brochures for Japanese, Gardiner has done his fair share of recruiting.
“Yeah, if I know someone who has come home from a mission, or knows the language, I tell them Weber’s got a great teacher and a great program,” Gardiner said. “I’ve recommended it to a number of people.”
Gardiner said he feels that other aspects of the program not only hinder the recruiting process, but also affect decisions to become a Japanese minor.
“I originally thought, ‘I’ll get done quicker,’ but the school only offers one upper-division class per semester,” he said. “It makes it tough.”
In other programs, students can take multiple upper-division classes per semester, drastically decreasing the time spent in the program.
Even if the program takes a little longer, Gardiner said he is grateful to be in the Japanese program.
“I really wanted a Japanese minor,” he said.